The manufacture of finely divided magnesium (i.e. "atomized" magnesium) for use in pyrotechnic devices such as flares, military applications and other purposes is well known. One process used is to eject a stream of liquid magnesium from a nozzle and then to hit the liquid magnesium stream, as it issues from the nozzle, with a high velocity jet of inert gas, such as helium. The impact of the helium jet on the liquid magnesium stream breaks the liquid stream into very finely divided droplets which, when passed into a large chamber containing the inert gas, cool in said chamber to form solid magnesium powder of such fineness as to be commonly referred to as "atomized" magnesium.
Such a process, however, could not, prior to the present invention, be operated continuously because some of the liquid magnesium issuing from the nozzle would after a period of operation deposit and collect in solid form on the end of the nozzle, which in turn would interfere with and disrupt the inert gas jet to an extent such that the operation would have to be discontinued.
Shut-down of the apparatus to remove the build-up on the nozzle is time consuming and expensive. Once the operation is interrupted for any length of time the liquid magnesium cools and solidifies in the lines.